Serious Error - in driver

They prolly said it was related to a driver, which is a bit of a different thing than a drive. It being a problem with your hard drive (or any other drive) is mucho unlikely, particularily if your HD is using NTFS (& it probably is if you're using Win 2000 or XP).

If it's a problem with the driver for some piece of hardware in your machine, it would almost certainly be an IRQ conflict that's causing this. Thing is, not all types of devices in your machine use IRQs, so it is narrowed down a bit. To fix this, you'd probably need to get a pro to look it over, but even then it might be difficult to diagnose & fix.

One question, did you add any new hardware to your machine recently?

Some other ideas....

1) A dieing or faulty power supply (this, IMO, is just as likely as an IRQ conflict)

2) Bad software

No new hardware, Monger.

Could be a weird power supply - we are short of electricity at present - heatwave.

Bad software...hmmmm - is there an online site which might be able to assess this? (Thinking desperately if I have added any software recently, and coming up with a blank..)

What is an IRQ?

Thank you!

IRQ stands for Interupt ReQuest. They're wires used to signal the CPU that a peripheral event has started or stopped. Except for PCI devices, two devices can't use the same line. If some hardware is preset to the IRQ used by something else in your machine, one of them must be changed. This stuff was an enormous headache in earlier computers, but not nearly as common a problem now.

Try this... Right click My Computer -> Properties -> Hardware tab -> Device Manager button.

If the window that shows up has any icons with exclamation marks or x's over them, you may have found the problem device. Otherwise, you'll prolly need a techie to look over it for potential issues.

By 'power supply' I mean the box in your machine with a big fan on the back, which converts ac to dc.

But it very well might be happening because of very short power dips or outages, like you described.

Replacing the power supply thingie would fix your problem, if it's dieing.

Getting a UPS would fix the problem, if all that's happening is you're getting very short power dips or outages.

No nasty crosses or !s and such.

Is the power thingy (the kind of technologese I like, thankee) likely to be going boonta in a very new computer? Or is that one of those thingies that can boonta at any time?

Heh. Well, those power thingies & floppy drives are some of the most common things to fall over, but nah it's not likely with a new computer. Thing is, it might have always been very slightly defective...or it could be one of those unlikely cases.

Here's how I see it (course, I'm making up these numbers from the top of my head)...

- IRQ conflict ...40% chance
- Power supply problem ...25% (would be higher if your machine was old)
- Damaged or faulty software ...15% (lower if you were running no programs & doing nothing when it rebooted)
- Short power dips, after which the PC preceeds to reboot ...maybe 10%
- Hoodoo ...10%

They're all real possibilities though, so take your pick

One more...

- Faulty memory ...I'm not sure if this can cause the symtoms you described (and it would nevertheless be very unlikely since RAM is durable stuff), but I'll throw it out there anyway

The worst part is, if you do bring it in to a tech shop, unless they're able to duplicate the problem they might have to go with guesswork.

Any other problems you've seen (like strange intermittent error messages, for e.g.) or changes you've made which you think might be related?

One more thought, if you're not using any surge protection, frequent power spikes (which is likely if you're having electricity issues over there right now) can "age" a power supply very quickly.

If you want to try to determine if this is a power supply problem, first start using a UPS, then at night shut down all programs (including background programs) and just leave Windows running. If some mornings you return to see Windows frozen or see that the machine has rebooted, that would suggest a power supply problem.

Also, if this problem gradually gets more frequent over, say, the next few months, that would strongly suggest a power supply problem.

This just happened to me, first time in a very long time. I had tried to open a pdf link that husker had sent me, and was told there was an error and wouldn't open. Fine, closed the (blank) window. Shortly after closing the pdf window got that message from Microsoft. I clicked "don't send", and when the dust settled, of the approximately 5 windows I had open, two Yahoo windows were gone (mail and group) but the rest was there and fine.

Not a problem for me, about how it has happened before when it has happened, and I know not nearly enough technical info (forget the exact content of the error messages), but FYI.

Soz, that doesn't sound similar to dlowan's problem at all. Programs crash for any number of reasons. That sometimes causes other running programs to crash.

OK. FYI in this case means here is possibly useful or possibly useless information for you. I thought of it because when I read this I thought, "That's exactly the error message I just saw from Microsoft." That's all.

Good luck figuring it out.

Thanks Soz.

There IS an odd thing happening - sometimes when the computer is busy, the desktop items flicker on and off. Now - this began after I downloaded some program or another - damned if i know what it was now!

I uninstalled it, then searched for it, and personually deleted every last li'l scrap of it. But we all know how effective THAT is.

Hey, Monger - do you actually KNOW what boonta means?

Soz, okay, I was just bein' frank with ya. not much in the way of advice that I can say.

Bunny, I suppose that unless you're a total Star Wars geek & are referring to Jabba the hutt's Boonta Eve, it must be a weirdo Aussie way for calling things crazy.

I wasn't ASKING for advice...! (Very theatrical and annoying eyeroll...)

Sheesh. Consider that eyeroll mutual.

Now - break it up you two - don't want nobody losin' an eyeball here.......sheesh....

Hey fluffbuns, did I get the definition right? I think I've heard Ozfolk using it before, which is the only reason I have any clue..

<stands in corner, arms crossed, and casts baleful glances over her shoulder while muttering things about "just trying to help" and "nothin' but eyeballs and a tongue anyway...">

Any luck with your computer yet, dlowan?

Nah. Hasn't crashed again, either.

Boonta (not sure if my spelling is right) means crazy in local Aboriginal speak.

I don't know if it is just local Kaurna, or some other local group - or whether it is used universally.

. . .well then, my deductive powers astound me. . .